germany is one of our closest allies and our closest friends. that is true across the spectrum of issues. economic, diplomatic and angela merkel is one of my close friends on the world stage and somebody whose partnership i deeply value. and so it has pained me to see the degree to which the disclosures have created strengthen the relationshistrai. for broadly i have been convinced for a very long time that it is important for the legal structures and policy structures to catch up with rapidly advancing technologies. as a consequence to a series of steps what we try to do is reform what we do. have taken these issues very seriously. domestically we tr tried to proe additional assurances the american people their privacy is protected, but what i have also done is taken the unprecedented steps of ordering our intelligence committees to take the privacy interest of not good interest for everything they do. something that has not been done before and most other countries do not do. the privacy interest of non-us citizens are deeply relevant and take